Wp Elevation Wordpress Business Podcast

Watch the video of this podcast here. Jeff Bullas started out his career as a teacher but his heart wasn’t in it, so he “fired” himself and started to create content about each new tech revolution – PC, web, and now his content is around social media and marketing your business. He was one of the early adopters of blogging in 2009 and practised inbound marketing. He was inspired by the book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott, as he liked the idea of attracting customers rather than going out to chase them. His blog, which started out as a passion project, has ended up being a huge success that it is today. We urge you to visit jeffbullas.com/bio and check out his long list of bragging rights. He is currently in Forbes’ Top 20 Influencers of CMOs. Blogging Within a Saturated Market With the blogosphere being such a saturated market these days, Troy asks whether Jeff’s success was also a matter of good timing and whether

Watch the video of this podcast here. Who is Karim Marucchi?Karim’s company, Crowd Favorite, is a WordPress speciality development shop that works specifically integrating WordPress into large enterprise systems. The company is an amalgamation of three companies that came together around 4 years ago for their complementary specialisations. These were - Karim’s original company, VeloMedia, the late Alex King’s, Crowd Favorite and James Archer’s design firm, Forty. Although Karim’s background is in architecture, in 1994 he founded one of LA’s first web agencies. (One of only three in LA! How awesome is that!) In 1997 when the internet was growing fast, they were acquired by a large famous firm that went public. When he left that company, he went to work for a major advertising group in Europe. He then founded another company there and took it public on the Italian stock exchange and worked with a major European conglomerate to buy small web shops and place them into advertisi

Watch the video of this podcast here. Pippin Williamson has reached the goal we all dream of- having a company that can run itself. But how did he get there? And what happens when you get there? First up, Cath tackles a very important question - how did Pippin get such a cool name!? Well, you will just have to listen to find out! We then move on to where Pippin got started and how his business grew. He explains that he started out by creating plugins just for fun (as you do!) Then when he started doing some freelance web development work, he used his own plugins to solve all the problems that he was encountering along the way. This was in 2010-2011, before we had cool things like Google fonts and options in CSS. So, he would create plugins according to what he needed. Tune in at the 6.30 minute mark to find out what problems he faced and what plugins he created for this. Pippin started selling his plugins on codecanyon.net (run by envatomarket). However, he wanted to be able to sell them for himself, so he cr

Watch the video of this podcast here. Dustin is the director of customer experience operations at WP Engine. He has seen the business grow exponentially. He began four years ago as the 47th employee, and things have taken off from there. He leads two teams that focus on customer experience and delivering quality support. It’s their goal to make sure that their customers have the best and most seamless experience possible within the platform. People create websites to take their message to the world. They don’t create websites to get bogged down in backups, updates, and other maintenance duties. Dustin reminds his customer experience teams to understand how important the website is to the customer when it comes to sharing the customer’s message. It’s easy to forget that this website may be what puts food on the customer’s table, and how serious it is to the customer when the site is down. He encourages his team to be empathetic and quick to help people in anyway they can. Building

Watch the video of this podcast here. Brad has always been involved in technology in some way. In 2004, he started a web development company. He spent about five years building Joomla websites, but he realized that he needed to switch to WordPress when he noticed the robust WordPress community and the available plugins. He then hired his first full-time employee, a WordPress developer named Lucas Karpiuk who is still with him today. They then became a WordPress development shop around 2009 and would code PSD files into websites for agencies. Brad had an ‘aha’ moment when he noticed his clients were coming back for support, and he transitioned GoWP to a WordPress support provider. Hosting used to be a recurring revenue safety net for development companies, but with increasing support needs WordPress maintenance can be a source of recurring revenue for your website business. You can even bill throughout the month to have consistent money coming in. Don’t miss Brad’s tip around the 5-minu

Watch the video of this podcast here. Bob has been in the WordPress industry since 2007, but he started freelance graphic design in the late 80s. He and his wife ran a graphic design business for over 20 years, focussing mainly on print work. Bob didn't start working on the web until the mid-90s, but he wasn't a fan of HTML sites. He discovered WordPress in 2007, and that began his current career trajectory.In 2010, he was involved in coaching and training but now focuses on podcasting, In 2010, he was involved in coaching and training but now focuses on podcasting, blogging and monetization through those mediums. He enjoys the creative side of podcasting and content creation, and now runs three podcasts and publishes content every day. Needless to say, he's a busy guy! At the 7 minute mark, you won’t want to miss how Bob feels about multitasking! He also shares how he uses a schedule to juggle content creation and marketing. Bob has spent the last several years focused on WordPress for beginners, but t

Watch the video of this podcast here. Dee’s been in the web world since the early 2000s and has done everything from web development, community organization, training, blogging, and even running her own freelance business. She truly is the Web Princess! She joined Human Made recently and made the transition from independent business owner to project manager on their team. A lot of her friends worked at Human Made before she joined their ranks, and she’s happy to have done so. On today’s show she explains why she made the transition and how it’s been a good fit for her. She also tells Cath about a big project she and her Human Made team are currently working on. Right now they are creating a new CMS and newsroom management workflow based on WordPress for a big newspaper publishing company. It incorporates the client’s different workflows, so it is unique to this company. There is a massive amount of customization, so much so it'll nearly be unrecognizable from WordPress at the end

Watch the video of this podcast here. Currently, Brian Richards runs WP Sessions and all the training they offer for web developers. They focus on WordPress related subjects and topics about running a WordPress business, including creative problem solving and client relationship management dynamics. Brian explains to Mike that today to be a great web developer, you have to do more than just write code. You also have to know and understand project management, contracts, and client management. He has come to this understanding through his various interests and experiences. Brian discovered Photoshop at a young age, which led to an interest in CSS and HTML, then PHP. He also earned a photography degree in college; he wanted to expand beyond the world of coding and computers. The more he studied and learned, the more he understood the business aspects of service offerings. He could see the importance of having the best practices mentality in any service business, whether it was web development or not. Mike asks w

Watch the video of this podcast here. Nemanja explains ManageWP started the way a lot of companies begin: someone was looking for a solution that wasn’t yet available in the marketplace. The solution they were seeking was an all-in-one service that minimizes some of the day to day tasks of the typical WordPress professional. Today ManageWP is a service that does just that; it helps WordPress professionals handle things like logging into multiple websites with one click, backing up hundreds of sites with one action, etc. It was an idea that took off! As of now, the service helps 27,000 people manage almost half million websites! They grew so much that GoDaddy took notice and last September acquired ManageWP. One of the misconceptions people had when this occurred was that it was an exit for ManageWP when in fact, the opposite is true. ManageWP had grown to a point where they realized they were more than just website management. Nemanja says they knew if they wanted to change people's lives, they had to f

Watch the video of this podcast here. The first thing Gin asks Ian is why should we livestream on Facebook? Why will it benefit our business and our audience? Ian says everyone needs to come up with their own why, and not just because lots of people are doing it and it's the "hot" thing to do right now! First and foremost understand live video is a more intimate platform between you and your audience, there's more of a connection there. Live video brings back the human interaction and authenticity, something many are missing in today’s digital age. Live video allows you to be more authentic, to share your thoughts and show how you work behind the scenes. This medium creates empathy, authenticity, and human connection through interaction. Gin also asked Ian if this medium is for everyone. Surprisingly, Ian responded with a no! However, he goes on to say it's probably for more people than we think! We all can come up with a lot of excuses about why not to do it, but it's worth considering as an option bec

Watch the video of this podcast here. After graduating from University with degrees in both commerce and clinical psychology, Adam began his career as a forensic psychologist in maximum security prisons, then headed into the world of advertising. He positioned himself as an expert by writing a book (“The Advertising Effect - How to Change Behaviour”) and landing some TV appearances. When Troy asked him if he needed to overcome any self-doubt in order to do this, Adam replied that surprisingly, he had no problems with it. He believes that being different is sometimes better than being right. And that people often want to hear a new or different opinion to break through all the noise out there. And luckily, Adam claims to have both an opinion and a voice! Ten years ago, it dawned on him that both psychology and advertising are in the business of changing behaviour. He has fascinated by this and wanted to explore it further. Adam explains that he has a love/hate relationship with consumerism. He

Watch the video of this podcast here. A big Green Bay Packers fan, Lisa first appeared on the WP Elevation podcast back in 2014 where she spoke about publishing her books and speaking at SXSW. Only a year into her partnership with WebDev Studios back then, she still agrees that it’s one of the best professional decisions she has made. Remote ChallengesWith 42 staff, the entire WebDev Studios team work remotely. Lisa concedes that like all remote businesses, communication is the number one challenge, but due to some dynamic tools they are able to work extremely efficiently. The number one tool used for daily staff communication by the team is Slack. It’s set up using different channels for each area of the business. Kristina was interested in some of the random, not-quite-work-related channels that they use to encourage team cohesion and Lisa mentioned some fantastic channel discussions… Parenting channel: team chat related to working and having children Homeowners channel: renovations and

Watch the video of this podcast here. Lee is a self-confessed serial entrepreneur who came to WordPress in version 0.9! He hosts the successful WP Innovator podcast and runs Event Engine - a business building WordPress websites for event organisers - as well as Angled Crown, working with design agencies who need help building their designs into WordPress themes. Troy considers Lee to be well qualified for the job of generating leads for their faux online business, so he hands him the baton and asks what Lee intends to do first. 1) Define who you are targeting Lee explains that the first thing you need to do is establish the exact type of client you want to reach and decide what their problem is (the problem that you are going to solve for them). The best way to do this is by setting up a ‘perfect client avatar’. In the case of Troy and Lee’s faux business, they introduce us to Mary, the new perfect client. By creating a narrative around your perfect client, you’ll better understand w

Watch the video of this podcast here. Emma and Carla are so much fun that we highly recommend you listen or watch the podcast to get the most out of this episode! Their enthusiasm is infectious, and Gin had to make an extra special effort to stay on-topic and not get carried away. The girls begin by telling us about their journey to becoming successful businesswomen. It started in 2012 when they changed their lifestyle habits and Carla began posting on her personal Instagram account about it. There was huge interest in their content, so they began blogging about their story. They loved what they were doing, so started attending blogging conferences and learning everything they could about making it a full-time gig. The sisters eventually quit their government jobs and started making eBooks, courses, and even an app. InstagramThey started their Instagram domination by sharing photos and hashtags, but are the first to admit that these days, so much content gets lost in the online noise that a more in-depth stra

Watch the video of this podcast here. Adam has been in business for 16 years, running a design agency for nine of those years. Born from his frustration with the tedious time taken to write proposals, he asked his development team to make a basic web-based tool that gave them some tracking stats on the proposals that they sent out. When he saw that more and more people were interested in the proposal template that they were sending, he bought the domain name BetterProposals.io, put up a basic landing page, and got more leads in one week than they had in the whole previous year! Adam knew he was onto something. Adam begins the interview by explaining that we need to stop looking at proposals as a necessary evil and start looking at them as one of the most important components of your business processes. “Afterall, if your proposals suck, you won’t land the job!” Adam has seen time and time again that people don’t realize proposals are a thing that can be improved upon. More often than n

Watch the video of this podcast here. [Note: Some of the video footage gets a bit funky in this podcast. Unfortunately, Skype wasn't having a good day. Audio is fine though.] As of right now, there are 6.5 million people with the Yoast plugin, and that number keeps growing. But it wasn’t until he had reached a million users that Joost de Valk began to build a company around it, and even then it was at his wife’s suggestion! That was about 5 years ago, and the company continues to evolve and grow every day. With Joost’s background in marketing and development, he and his team are at the forefront of SEO and innovation. In fact, Joost and his staff speak to Google’s search consulting and search quality teams on a weekly basis. The Yoast team wants to be sure they are always finding ways to better serve their users. On this episode of WP Elevation, Joost and I discuss the latest in video SEO and how the other tools in his product suite can help you. He also explains the biggest benefits o

Watch the video of this podcast here. Amy began her career in media and the arts. In her mid-twenties, seeking a change, she enrolled in psychology to pursue her interest in the human story. Now with a Masters in clinical psychology, Amy also hosts a podcast for early career psychologists where she interviews psychologists from various backgrounds. She also enjoys working with Smiling Mind (a mindfulness meditation ap), in training and content development. Amy begins her discussion with Mike by noting that mental health is important in all industries, but there are additional issues facing people like who work alone. The way workplaces are set up can add to potential isolation, and working from home means that there are none of the benefits of a face-to-face team environment in terms of social support and connection. On top of this, managing deadlines, challenges, and even remote staff on your own can be a stressful situation. “Too much tech time is not good for our wellbeing!” We need to manage t

Watch the video of this podcast here. Andrew begins the interview by explaining the varied symptoms of anxiety including: sweats; a fast-beating heart; feeling shaky; overthinking; doubt and/or worry. He points out that the ‘fight and flight’ response is hardwired into our DNA, which is why these reactions can come about. There’s an important differentiation that he points out though when Cath asks him about what to do when you just “can’t handle” a problem or situation... “I can’t handle this,” actually means, “I don’t want to have to handle this.” We are creating the experience in the first place with what we tell ourselves and the way we frame our thoughts. Much food for thought there based on the cognitive behavioral therapy way of thinking. Preventing Anxiety Cath asked Andrew for some helpful tips on preventing Anxiety. He had two main strategies: Be aware of how and why you are doing something in the first place Look at the big pi

Watch the video of this podcast here. Cory Miller started iThemes back in 2008 as a premium theme company for WordPress. Today he and his company are best known for their Backup Buddy plugin and iThemes security. He’s also the co-author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies and the current Communications chair of the Oklahoma chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization. Today he joins WP Elevation to talk about mental health topics like depression and emotional resilience for entrepreneurs. You probably recognize Cory Miller because of his company iThemes and their plugin and software offerings for WordPress. However he’s here on the WP Elevation podcast for another reason. As part of our mental health awareness campaign, Cory Miller is here to share a few of the topics he boldly shared in a WordCamp talk he gave in Denver recently. If you want to hear that talk in full you can find it in the links below. Although we can’t cover everything he talked about in that presentation, we are digging

Watch the video of this podcast here.   It’s estimated that roughly 20% of the population will deal with the medical diagnosis of mental health issue every year and among IT professionals that percentage is even higher. Ed Finkler is a lead developer who has been in the tech world for several decades now. Because of his own mental health experiences, he has started a group to help IT professionals suffering from mental health disorders and to help those who employ or work with those professionals.Today that organization is called Open Sourcing Mental Illness (OSMI). OSMI works to raise awareness about mental health within the IT community through research, education and organizational outreach. It’s called Open Sourcing Mental Illness because OSMI uses the ideas of open source culture to fight the mental health issues in the tech community. When I asked Ed about the specific origins of OSMI, he shared he has ADHD and generalized anxiety disorder along with episodic depression (the first two